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Welcome to a new edition of the Daily Music Picks newsletter!
Today’s music pick is a brief buzzsaw of a noise-pop album, perfectly melding fuzzed-out production with undeniable hooks.
Genre: Noise-Pop, Shoegaze
Label: Saddle Creek
Release Date: June 9, 2023
Vibe: 🤘
American shoegaze, both as a subgenre and high-level pop-rock vibe check, is having a moment right now. From the catharsis of Blondshell to the edgy hominess of Rat Saw God, piling on the layers of noise without obstructing the core emotions expressed seems to be a winning formula. If you’re a fan of this and related genres like noise-pop and dreampop, add Girl With Fish, the second full-length from Pittsburgh natives Feeble Little Horse, to your list. Despite clocking in at 26 minutes, the band offers some deft, oddball production that keeps you guessing the entire way through. It’s a fitting expansion on what’s historically been a dorm room DIY creative operation for the group, their recent signing with the Saddle Creek label notwithstanding. Growing without losing touch with your roots, especially when shelter-in-place norms were a thing, is no small feat, and Feeble Little Horse pulls it off beautifully.
At their best, the group is all about tension and release. Lead single “Tin Man” lulls you into a false sense of security with a casual guitar riff and restrained vocals before exploding into a gleeful spectacle of distortion and then bringing you back down again, anchoring the ebb and flow around singer-bassist Lydia Slocum's delivery, which is equal parts soothing and eerie. “Steamroller” reverses the polarity, burying you in feedback before fading into a stark backbeat, a moment reminiscent of Portishead. By the time the group wraps things up with “Heavy Water,” a comedown that has some of the sharper sonic edges sanded down, it’s clear that, as musicians, songwriters, and home studio producers, these are serious talents worthy of not only your time but any notoriety they accumulate.
👉 Don’t forget to click the album image to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈